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Covering China from CyberspaceTue, 03 Mar 2015 16:27:35 +0000en-UShourly1China Digital Timeshttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/wp-content/themes/cdt/images/feedlogo.pnghttp://chinadigitaltimes.net
Developer: Changsha Skyscraper Project On Trackhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/07/developer-changsha-skyscraper-project-on-track/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/07/developer-changsha-skyscraper-project-on-track/#commentsThu, 25 Jul 2013 19:02:02 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=160406The developer of a record-breaking skyscraper in Changsha is denying media reports that it had not received the necessary approvals to proceed with the project, according to the South China Morning Post:

Broad Group spokeswoman Zhu Linfang disputed a Xinhua report that the company’s plan to build the world’s tallest building in just seven months had not received the requisite approval from Hunan’s Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development.

The Xinhua report also raised doubts about whether the 838-metre Sky City could be completed by April as planned as the ground-breaking ceremony at the site only took place on Saturday.

Zhu said that the company had obtained all necessary government approvals as the project had progressed from one stage to another and that Broad Group expected the state news agency to correct its mistake.

“They have obviously obtained the information from an official who is not overseeing the project and who is unfamiliar with the progress,” she said.

Yin Zhi , a professor of architecture at Tsinghua University and a senior adviser to the central government on urban planning, said that while “prefab” houses were common, a prefab skyscraper was “insane”.

His biggest worry was safety. “What about wind? Or earthquakes? Or a fire?” he asked.

Broad Group, the developer, has been tight-lipped about the building, saying its structure was a trade secret, Yin said.

“This is strange,” he said. “Buildings on such a scale always welcome peers to inspect the structure. But most people in the architecture community know nothing about this project.” [Source]

On Sina Weibo, China’s most popular microblogging platform, such skepticism has at times turned in an apocalyptic direction. On Sunday, Jiang Ruxiang, a Beijing-based management consultant and frequent commentator on economic and business issues for Chinese television, offered this over-the-top message: “An economic crisis is coming! 838 meters tall, 5.25 billion yuan! Offices on the 6th to 15th floors, apartments of different sizes on the 16th to 170th floors. Hotels on the 171st to 202nd floors. U.S., Japan and Dubai all built ‘tallest’ buildings before their economic crises. China is not an exception. Take care, Chinese companies! Economic crisis is coming!”

China’s newspaper commentators — many of whom write for Communist Party-owned venues — aren’t quite ready to cite Sky City as evidence that the country is due for divine retribution. They also don’t exactly share Zhang’s enthusiasm for skyscraper innovation. This is somewhat new: For years, China’s news media have been slavish boosters of the country’s pursuit of bigger and faster (if not better) infrastructure, buildings and events, uncritically promoting them as symbols of the country’s economic and diplomatic ascendance. The privately developed Sky City hasn’t enjoyed such praise.

Rather, the project appears to have become a convenient symbol of everything wrong with China’s pursuit of international recognition at the expense of more sensible development. On Sunday, the official Weibo account of People’s Daily, the mouthpiece of the Communist Party, offered a cautionary voice when it posted, “As China urbanizes, blindly opposing skyscrapers isn’t rational. But neither should we worship these increasingly high landmarks as if they’re totems.” [Source]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2013/07/developer-changsha-skyscraper-project-on-track/feed/0Sinking City Solution: Pump Groundwater Back?http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/03/sinking-city-solution-pump-groundwater-back/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/03/sinking-city-solution-pump-groundwater-back/#commentsMon, 12 Mar 2012 19:39:51 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=133242The State Council recently ratified a five-year plan to address the sinking ground levels of over 79,000 square kilometres and more than 50 cities in China, which potentially threaten the stability of everything from high-rise buildings to high-speed rail lines. The problem is caused primarily by groundwater over-extraction to meet the demands of thirstily growing cities, and has awoken Beijing’s passion for ambitious water-relatedengineering projects. Plans are afoot to re-inflate aquifers by pumping water back in; scepticism, however, abounds. From the South China Morning Post:

Tunnelling expert Professor Wang Mengshu of Beijing Jiaotong University, who is also a member of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Engineering, said he saw too much ambition and too little practicality in the land ministry’s plan ….

Professor Feng Zhiming, with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, said pumping water underground was too costly for most mainland cities ….

Jiang [Mingjing, who teaches underground engineering at Tongji University in Shanghai] said Beijing’s most urgent task was not to stop land subsistence, but to set up a network to monitor sensitive areas and buildings.

“A city may take centuries to sink, but a skyscraper can collapse overnight,” he said. “We must have some focus, or we will be lost.”

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2012/03/sinking-city-solution-pump-groundwater-back/feed/0Huaxi: The Village That Towers Above Chinahttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2011/10/huaxi-the-village-that-towers-above-china/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2011/10/huaxi-the-village-that-towers-above-china/#commentsTue, 11 Oct 2011 01:40:40 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/?p=124813The Guardian’s Jonathan Watts revisited the village of Huaxi ahead of the official unveiling of its new centrepiece, a 72-storey skyscraper housing a one-tonne, 300 million yuan solid gold ox.

An incongruous new sight has risen up in the countryside of eastern China: a skyscraper taller than any building in London or Tokyo, topped by what looks very much like a giant, golden disco ball. The 328-metre supertower, which juts out of the Jiangsu plains like a trophy on an empty shelf, will be opened on Saturday by the village of Huaxi, a communist model community with a registered population of just 2,000 “farmers”.

Having been built up to the heavens during a period of global economic collapse, the megatower will be heralded as the latest symbol of China’s extraordinary economic expansion. But this bizarre new addition to the landscape also speaks volumes about the land pressures, environmental stress, inequality and rash investment that threaten the country’s long-term growth.

“Poor quality, improper design or installation or maintenance of the glass door and the scorching weather are all possible causes for the incident,” said Lu Jinlong of the Shanghai Research Institute of Building Sciences.

Similar glass “explosions” or glass “bombs” falling off sides of high-rises have occurred frequently in the city during the past weeks, prompting concerns about the glass materials’ safety. A piece of glass on the 38th floor in the Shanghai International Finance Center broke into pieces on Wednesday ….

Meanwhile, a piece of glass in the One Lujiazui office tower broke on Monday, two months after a glass-shattering incident there damaged dozens of cars.

A glass platform barrier in Metro Line 10 suddenly exploded on Tuesday. An identical shield also shattered in Metro Line 11 on July 14.

Skyscraper owners and managers held the prime responsibility for the glass in their glass buildings, Deputy Mayor Shen Jun announced at a press conference on Wednesday.

“The city government must step up its efforts to prevent such accidents to minimize economic losses as well as injuries to residents,” he also said ….

The rate of exploding glass was about two windows in a 1,000, according to Fang, “too high odds to be ignored” for a metropolis like Shanghai ….

“The country’s technical standard does not meet that of the World Trade Organization,” Lu [Jinlong, also quoted by the Shanghai Daily] said.

“Although that does not necessarily mean that the glass walls are of poorer quality than those built by other more developed countries, Shanghai’s skyscrapers need more efficient and thorough safety checks to examine the glass walls’ quality.”

The most fascinating aspect of the current exhibit on Shanghai, however, is the show’s framing thesis. China Prophecy: Shanghai is the final show in the three-part exhibition entitled ‘Future City: 20/21,’ which began with the show ‘New York Modern,’ and also included an exhibit and symposium on ‘Vertical Cities: Hong Kong.’

Presented in this way, ‘China Prophecy’ invites viewers to compare the near future of Shanghai with the past futurism of New York. This collision of time and space is suggested right at the start of the exhibition through twin blow-ups of Google maps, which illustrate the uncanny mirroring of Lujiazui and lower Manhattan, with their almost identical waterfronts, clusters of skyscrapers, and intense urban density.

As a city of skyscrapers, Shanghai has echoed Manhattan from the start. The Park Hotel, the city’s tallest tower until 1983, was built only after Shanghai’s great architect Laszlo Hudec returned from America. Hudec’s design for the Park Hotel was based on his sketches of Raymond Hood’s Radiator Building, which is located on West 40th Street, Manhattan.

The country is in the middle of the greatest building boom in human history. Six of the world’s 10 tallest buildings completed last year were in China, including the 492-metre-tall Shanghai World Financial Centre. Even taller structures are on their way – such as the Shanghai Centre, 632 metres, and at 600 metres, the Goldin Finance 117 in Tianjin.

But among the giants there is one that could hold out hope for a low-carbon future. The Pearl River Tower, now being erected in Guangzhou, the provincial capital of Guangdong province, is being billed as the most energy efficient superskyscraper ever built.

With wind turbines, solar panels, ­sun-shields, smart lighting, water-cooled ceilings and state-of-the-art insulation, the 310-metre tower is designed to use half the energy of most buildings of its size and set a new global benchmark for self-sufficiency among the planet’s high rises.

Engineers say the tower could even be enhanced to create surplus electricity if the local power firm relaxes its monopoly over energy generation.

China’s economy is booming like never before and its social fabric is being ripped apart and knit together in novel ways. State-of-the-art sports stadiums, a renovated airport terminal, and a new financial district have been built or are under construction in pre-Olympic Beijing, where there’s even been talk of seeding rain clouds to limit pollution.

And, not to be outdone by its rival to the north, Shanghai is preparing to host the 2010 World Expo, an event that will have decidedly twenty-first-century elements. Upon arrival, visitors will be rocketed from airport to WiFi-wired exhibition halls via magnetic-levitation trains that run through a city that now has more skyscrapers than Manhattan. [Full Text]

]]>http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/10/skyscrapers-shenzhen-vs-chongqing/feed/0In World Skyscraper Race, It Isn’t Lonely at the Top – Howard W. Frenchhttp://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/05/in-world-skyscraper-race-it-isnt-lonely-at-the-top-howard-w-french/
http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/05/in-world-skyscraper-race-it-isnt-lonely-at-the-top-howard-w-french/#commentsTue, 08 May 2007 16:09:42 +0000http://chinadigitaltimes.net/2007/05/08/in-world-skyscraper-race-it-isnt-lonely-at-the-top-howard-w-french/
From the New York Times:

Mr. Mori, who has a Trump-like three dozen or so buildings in Tokyo that bear his name, would offer Shanghai the world’s tallest building, at 1,614 feet. For extra effect the roof of his new building would be formed by a giant enclosed circle that would house specially outfitted cars, a sort of Ferris wheel at the top of the world.

If skyscrapers can be said to have journeys, what has happened since has been one long, strange trip indeed. These days workers are racing to complete the 101-floor building on schedule, mounting skyward floor by floor toward a hitherto unaccustomed view that looks down on the neighboring landmarks. [Full text]

For some Chinese, skyscrapers are seen as symbols of urban modernity and economic dynamism.

It partially explains why many domestic cities seem to regard high-rises that dot their skylines as their claim to fame, and as a backdrop to their having arrived as truly metropolitan.

Currently, Shanghai, China’s business hub, has more than 4,000 buildings taller than 16 storeys, which is reportedly the largest high-rise cluster anywhere on the planet. The city hosts the Chinese mainland’s highest building, the 420-metre Shanghai Jinmao Tower.